Aquamarine
by kaiyamaikagami
Summary: Sasuke and Naruto graduate from the Academy. The year is 2153 and a lot has changed. Humans now live in a world where they have many outposts in the stars, and predominantly travel over land through flight. But now, the final frontier is the depths of the ocean. In a modern world, bonds of hatred run deep. Ever since the revolution of 2099, known as the Rebirth, humanity has change
1. Prologue

_When I run towards the light_

_It always seems to fly farther away…_

My mind was filling with water. There was no way to survive this now, no way to win. It was too easy to give up and drift in the writhing undercurrents of the ocean. The darkness seemed to be darkening, there was no way to rise to the surface. I was falling down, so far down. The numbness seemed to be flooding me and my mind was slowing down. I have never been afraid of dying, only afraid of dying before my goal was accomplished.

Then a face flickered before my eyes. Not the face of my brother that had cast me into this watery grave, but the face of a single boy who had an incredibly annoying habit of talking too much. His golden locks shimmering in a nonexistent light. He reached out his hand to me with that idiotic smile spread across his face.

"Sasuke…"

His fingers reached towards mine.

"Sasuke… come with me."

He turned away leaving a path of light behind him. I tried to call after him, but my voice didn't seem to be working. Salty seawater was flooding in, and I couldn't breathe and couldn't think. I made one last effort to reach toward him, but it was in vain. The light receded from around me, and I lost consciousness, the weight of the water above me pushing me further down.

* * *

Hello!

This is supposed to be a NaruSasu/SasuNaru fic. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue it though, so if you like it, please let me know! As always any comments/suggestions are welcome. Thanks :)


	2. Golden

I walked down the street with a typical scowl on my face. It was a normal day. But it wasn't really. Today was our graduation day or rather, the day of our graduation exam. Plenty of people had to return for a fifth year or even more. Another day at the Academy full of classes, another day I would fight my way to the top, another day I had to win. Because if I didn't win, I would lose, and if I lost, I would die the next time I met my brother.

I blinked away the brief image of my brother's face looking down at me. He hated me, and I hated him. He killed my family, and so I would kill him. When he was younger, he had been the star of the Academy. He had set a record when he went through the curriculum in only 3 years. The Academy was an elite training center that taught young men, boys really, to pilot and fight in the aquaterrain.

I heard rowdy group of boys running to the gates of the Academy. At their head was that idiotic blonde boy. His friends, Kiba and Shikamaru, were close on his heels. I walked behind them because we were in the same class. I put my hands in my pockets and strolled along the corridor.

Out of nowhere, two of the girls appeared.

"Hello, Sasuke!" They chorused.

I gave them a glare and continued walking. They came up, one on each side. They really were annoying. Most of the girls at the Academy seemed overactive and pushy. I tried to walk faster. When we got into the classroom, I went to my usual seat near the back.

Naruto and his two friends sat one in front of the other. Naruto was next to me. He offered me a wide smile.

"Hey Sasuke!"

I glowered and turned away. He greeted me the same way every day when we got into class. It was annoying, too. He never said any more than that, though. I turned to the front of the classroom to wait for the teacher.

He showed up just on time. This was the day I had been waiting for. If I passed the exam now, I would be on track to catch up with my brother. This was my third year. The exam was to be one-on-one battles between students. Winning the fight didn't mean a pass, and losing didn't mean a fail. The teachers judged on strategy, efficiency, and such, things that would be important in actual combat.

I knew I could do this. It was the Uchiha way to pass through quickly and enter the special force, Black Arrow. That was what my brother had done, and so I had to do it, too. My fists clenched under the desk. I had to win. I was roughly recalled to the classroom when the teacher said my name.

"Uchiha Sasuke vs. Uzumaki Naruto."

I almost stood up. _Him?_ He was the class clown, the idiot. I knew he was raised in an orphanage. I didn't know how he actually managed to make his way into the Academy, it was supposed to be really difficult to enter. I figured it would be an easy fight, an easy win. Somehow I wanted to fight someone I was on more even footing with.

The time for our fight was soon. We lined up on the dock above the clear teal water. The sea was relatively stable today. This was humanity's last frontier to penetrate, the depths of the ocean. All of our divers were from the school, but they could be customized. It took engineering skills to customize them, and different families had different traditions. The Uchiha codes were all relatively complicated, and I had yet to unlock even the Level 1 Sharingan, the eyes to see.

Naruto and I lined up at the end of the dock. His blue eyes were determined. I really hadn't seen him fight much and had stayed away from him during sparring. Given his performance in classes, however, this would be easy. I smirked at him, but he just glared back.

"3. 2. 1. Go!" The teacher called.

Our helmets were snapped on, and we dived. The water was a deep transparent blue. We turned to face each other, now with about six feet separating us.

I surfaced one minute and twenty-three seconds later. I was basically unscathed. Naruto's armor was cracked in several places, and he came out of the water cursing. For show I extended my hand to help him onto the dock but he slapped it away.


	3. Foxes

My breath caught. I was already exhausted from my scrape with Sasuke earlier in the day. I was being chased. By who? I had no idea. I was sixteen years old, and this thing was ridiculous. And then I was flattened.

"Give me the code." I couldn't see the man above me clearly.

"Give me the code, damn you!" I flinched as he threw another punch at me.

I had no code. Everyone else had codes their families had passed them, but me? I was an orphan. No one cared about me, and it had taken me the good part of my first two years at the Academy to make friends. This was my third year. No one was really expected to pass after three years. Some did, but they were the one's considered special. Almost all of them went into Black Arrow.

"The code! Give it to me!"

Those were the last words I heard before I lost consciousness. I awoke the next day in the hospital wing of the Academy. There were soft voices speaking around me, and I wondered who they were. I opened my eyes and almost instantly wished that I hadn't.

"Naruto!"

"Yes, Lady Tsunade?" I flinched. She was the best doctor, but she had a temper that was hard to deal with.

Her expression inexplicably softened.

"I'm glad you're alright."

I looked at her questioningly.

"Huh?"

"Idiot, you were almost killed! What were you doing…"

And it kept going.

I was released from the hospital wing a few days later. I had a few bandages and a scar or two to show for it. Kiba and Shikamaru greeted me enthusiastically, well Kiba did, at least. Shikamaru just muttered something about how troublesome it was that I had missed the first day of summer vacation.

We walked to the walls that separated us from the ocean. The walls were at least one hundred and fifty feet high and completely clear. The water level came about half-way up at the time, but at high tide, the waves would come much higher. We stood gazing at the water for a while.

As we turned to walk to our respective houses, I caught a glimpse of Sasuke. He was as dark as always, his hair falling in his eyes and his mouth formed into a hard line. I tried to call out to him, but he didn't say anything. Kiba cuffed me on the arm.

"You always try to talk to him, but he's not going respond. He's a weird kid."

I nodded still staring after Sasuke's back. My mind flickered back to the incident the night before. What was the code? I didn't have any codes. My parents were dead, so there was no one to pass on the knowledge me. I had no clan secrets, no hidden weapons. I was stuck with general issue equipment with no special features. It sucked.

Later that day, I was walking to my dorm. Ahead of me, I saw Iruka walking down the corridor. He looked unusually serious, and stopped when he saw me.

"Naruto." He said. What did he want?

"Given the events of last night, we believe you should graduate the Academy and get to more specialized training immediately. You'll be assigned to a three-man squad tomorrow."

"Wait, really? Yay!" I punched the air.

I didn't really have a clue about what had happened the night before, but I was happy that I had graduated. It was the first possible year I could graduate. This put me in genius standing, something I wasn't really used to. Most of my friends were older than me. People my age tended to be immature and bully me, and I had heard that everyone of them had graduated as well. I had a good season coming.

I lay peacefully in my bed that night. I was content, for at least a little while. And I drifted off to sleep in the soft moonlight drifting through my window. Shadows were falling in my dreams. I heard a loud growling, and I saw a flash of bright orange. I woke with a start. My hands were clutching the sheets and I was drenched in cold sweat. _What is that?_ I wondered.

As I lay awake trying to fall asleep again, it came to me. The thing I had seen in my dream was a giant nine-tailed fox. My heartbeat was unnaturally quick. Nine-tailed foxes didn't exist I told myself. But as I got up to get a drink of water, the image haunted me. It felt familiar in a way I couldn't really explain. I went back to bed shortly and fell asleep again, but no foxes invaded my dreams.


	4. Betas

I walked into the entrance for aquaterrain A-12. This was the field where all the recent graduates would gather for their team assignments. Everyone else looked older than me. Good. I needed to be the genius. I stood with my hands in my pockets, waiting for someone to show up. I looked up when I heard the rustling of footsteps.

Suddenly, there were a large number of Rank 2s. In our military system, there was only one Rank 1. This was Lady Tsunade. She was both our leader and our leading medical specialist. It was an interesting combination. The Rank 2s worked directly below her, and they were also charged with wrangling us Betas. The Rank 3s went on missions in teams of three and were Betas that had passed the military achievement exam (MAE). And, of course, Betas were those who had just graduated the Academy.

The Rank 2s were easily identifiable because of their black waistbands on their suits. There was a sudden scuffle at the door and to my surprise, a certain blonde stumbled in. His helmet was askew, and his hair was an utter mess.

"Sorry I'm late! Old Tsunade didn't tell me where I was supposed to be until three minutes ago."

He put his hands on his knees to catch his breath. My face deepened into a scowl. Why the hell was he here? I fought him, and there was absolutely nothing special about that idiot. He looked up and saw me. His idiotic face broke into a wide smile.

"Hey Sasuke!" He shouted as he came to walk over to stand next to me.

I heard a giggle from one side. I glanced over and saw that it was Hinata. Wait, she had been in our class, too. I looked around the room again. Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru… there were quite a number of people that I was acquainted with. At least Shikamaru was a year older, and Kiba was two. These were Naruto's friends. I was surprised that any of them had passed, especially that stupid blonde.

One of the Rank 2s ahead of us cleared his throat. My head snapped forward as did everyone else's. Even Naruto looked like he was paying proper attention. Tension seemed to buzz in the silence. When they got to team 7, a white-haired man stepped forward. Only a small part of his helmet was transparent, so only one of his eyes could be seen.

"Hello, I'm Kakashi Hatake." The one eye that I could see appeared to be smiling.

"On my team, I have…" He trailed off to check a sheet of paper. "Sakura Haruno,"

I let out a sigh. I really hoped I wouldn't be teamed up with her. She was one of the girls who couldn't seem to leave me alone properly.

"Sasuke Uchiha,"

_Great_. I thought. _Just what I need, next it's going to be Naruto, just to cap it off. _My nose was wrinkled in disgust. I sincerely hoped I wouldn't be stuck with a total loser like him. If he slowed me down, I wouldn't be able to achieve anything.

"Naruto Uzumaki."

I swore. Naruto cuffed me goodnaturedly on the shoulder. He looked so goddamn happy that we were on the same team. It annoyed me. He would definitely, definitely slow me down. Anyway, how had he managed to even graduate? Shouldn't he be back for another year at the Academy? I was in a very sour mood as I followed after my two other new teammates and Kakashi.

We walked through the air-lock to the aquaterrain and put on our helmets. I poked around in the system to see if anything would trigger the legendary Uchiha sharingan, but nothing happened. After the Rebirth, different humans were imprinted with different codes. We still weren't sure how exactly it worked, but codes were passed down from father to son or mother to daughter. Some codes could be taught, some could be hacked. Others were things people seemed to be born with. It was weird.

I felt a light zap in my left arm and turned. It was Naruto. He pointed ahead to where Kakashi was leaning against an underwater plant. He was holding pearlescent spheres. The Rank 2 attached them to his belt and pulled out a tablet. He was obviously reading.

"We're supposed to get them." The words flashed across the screen on his helmet.

I nodded to tell him I understood. Why was he trying to help me? I turned away from him. Surely, I could do this myself. It really didn't have to be that difficult. However, it was much more easily said than done. After an hour, all three of us Betas were running low on energy. Since our underwater suits were powered on our own physical energy, we were getting weaker. And still, Kakashi was sitting around reading his tablet.

I noticed Sakura was trying to sneak up on him from behind and Naruto was coming from his left. I would let them fail, and use the opening. I waited. Sakura got thrown off. Naruto got pushed into a tangle of weeds. Now was my chance. I lunged forward. Kakashi slammed me into the ocean floor. Sand rose around us and dissipated in the waves. _Ouch_.


End file.
